Children need a municipal permit to play hockey or ball in the streets of Les Cèdres, in Montérégie.
The local town hall published a press release this week to remind its young citizens that free play was regulated on its territory.
The City thus says it meets a requirement of the Highway Safety Code, which effectively prohibits “occupying the roadway” without being authorized to do so. Since 2017, the Code has given municipalities the right to make regulations to authorize free play, which the small municipality did last fall.
In Les Cèdres, those who want to play in the street must fill out a form, have 66% of the residents of their street (or portion of street) sign it, present their request to the recreation director who will analyze it and forward it to the municipal council so that ‘he speaks. The procedure must be carried out every year.
“The objective is not to prohibit the use of the roadway for free play, it is rather to democratize the choice of a space,” indicated the general director of the Cèdres, Jimmy Potvin, in a telephone interview . “There is a significant safety issue with automobile traffic in neighborhoods. Motorists do not necessarily follow the rules. »
As of Thursday, no zone had received its permit in Les Cèdres.
Mr. Potvin indicated that the City would show a lot of understanding and flexibility in the application of its by-law.
Several other cities in Quebec have passed regulations to regulate free play on their streets in recent years.